Customer Ratings & Reviews

It has the charm of a Castlevania, but lacks the polish. It is still a Castlevania game at heart from the same creators. I would suggest watching some gameplay first as this game does have a certain cult following and it is intended to hit the nostalgia itch of many late 80s, early 90s platforming gamers.

Anyone who likes Castlevania Symphony of the Night or if you're looking for a similar experience, look no further. This game was simply amazing. I really loved everything about it. It really took me back. The way it felt to play, the challenges, and the story all felt so similar to SotN.

Graphically and gameplay wise this version is much more enjoyable than playing the Switch version. Cant wait to play 2 player co-op ! Gameplay is similar to Symphany of the Night. Story is quite interesting. Fans of Castlevania this is a no brainer. New players this is highly recommended !

Pros: Just finish the game last night and it was a blast from beginning to end. Castlevania is back with tons of options and customizations. Great enemy design, Solid story, weapon abilities, crafting items and even cooking lol. I wholly recommend this game enjoy... Cons: Voice acting

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is the sequel to the beloved Castlevania: Symphony of the Night in all but name and characters. Initiated as a Kickstarter project in May of 2015 following the success of Keiji Inafune's Mighty No. 9 Kickstarter efforts, Bloodstained was quickly funded by backers and was the second of three major spiritual successor Kickstarter campaigns (the third being Yooka-Laylee, a spiritual successor to the Nintendo 64 3D platformer Banjo-Kazooie) to promise a modernized take on a beloved title from the past. Mighty No. 9 and Yooka-Laylee released in 2016 and 2017, respectively, with the former title performing poorly and the latter being a decidedly good-but-not-great experience. This left all eyes on Bloodstained to see whether one of these three projects could manage to succeed.

IGA really honed in the best aspects of his last few games he did and meshed the best parts of them into this game. the 2.5 3d takes some getting used to since most metroidvanias are 2d. But the game has amazingly tight controls. And you really can mix and match and play the game how you want to play it. And unlike SOTN this has 3 difficulty modes. There is lots of content here and there is 13 DLC patches coming out that will be for free. They could have charged the full 60 for this and I would have been happy with that price after playing this. Its a sign a game is good that you think about it when not playing it. And even after beating it you want to come back to it and play it again from scratch. This really is IGAs best work to date.

Was looking for a game that was similar to Castlevania. Bloodstained got very good reviews and the price is perfect. Having a lot of fun with the game. everything from the gameplay, to the graphics and the music is very enjoyable.

This game blew my expectations. This is the spiritual successor of symphony of the night. Great gameplay, graphics and music. Highly recommended!!!

Do yourself a favor, and buy this game. If you like Symphony of the Night, you'll like this. The music is amazing as well. Plus it has crafting. Any self respecting RPG has crafting.

Great Castlevania successor...I mean, it technically is the "sequel" to SOTN! Old school side scrolling, rpg elements, quests, crafting, it's all hear. Any old school people or newbies to the genre should give this game a try.

If you've ever played and enjoyed a side-scrolling 2D Castlevania game, this is it's spiritual successor. It's so much like those games, in fact, that it feels like it should have the name in the title. It fits right in, straight down to the charmingly terrible voice-acting. The game mechanics are exactly the same as titles like Symphony of the Night. Most of the enemies are recognizable from previous Castlevania titles (though their names may be changed). Because it took it's gameplay mechanics straight out of Symphony, some of the more modern gameplay elements you may have come to expect from more recent titles in the genre aren't really there. What IS there is a solid Castlevania experience, which is all it really needs to be.

Just bust this game already but if you must know it is basically symphony of the night with female protagonist. Excellent gameplay and crafting mechanics make this a must have for any old school gamer!

Lets start off with this, BUY THIS GAME. It is very similar to SOTN. I love the soundtrack and stared off with the "sunder the night" remix. Any fans of Aria of sorrow, Order of Ecclesia, Symphony of the night should go for this. You will NOT be disappointed. You have multiple weapons to choose from, whips, guns, two handed swords, spears, daggers, karate boots and clubs. Once you find the "Good Killer Barber" you can customize Miriam. You can change her hairstyle, hair color, skin color, eye color and more. Also in the equipment screen you can change miriam's head gear and and it will show what item you are wearing, you can wear a cowboy hat, pirate hat, cat ears, a feather and so much more. The scarves and face masks are seen when you equip them also. There are also various items that you can equip that do special things, like the voice changer box and toy shoes. This game is easier the more you put into it. Grinding to a higher level, early in the game will make it easier in the long run. Also there are items which make the game easier. For example (Spoiler Alert) you can get a "Silver Power Ring" which increases attack power in proportion to slain enemies. Or "Traversers Ring" which increases attack power in proportion to map completion. You can equip two rings. You also have the librarian, Orlok Dracule, (who is a pleasant surprise of someone familiar) who you can receive buffs such as attack up, defense up, resistance to magic, attack speed up, luck up and many more. You start out being able to equip one book, but can equip more as time goes on. You can craft items from various loot, from weapons and food to weapon and shard upgrades. The shards... This is what makes the game fun with that Order of Ecclesia and Aria of Sorrow. From a bat to bosses... EVERY ENEMY HAS A SHARD THEY CAN DROP. These shards can be strenghened if you choose to. You have 5 categories that you can have equipped at one time. Conjure, manipulate, directional, passive and familiar. CONJURE: is like your subweapon in castlevania. MANIPULATIVE: is a special move you can do like "Craftwork" will let you move heavy objects, Or "Bunnymorphosis" that transforms you into a sexy bunny, or even "Sacred Shade" which massively boosts your stats while holding the button. DIRECTIONAL: is like your subweapon in castlevania, but you can choose where this one goes by rotating the right analog stick. Its a more precise shard set. PASSIVE: increases your stats like raising your intelligence, or attack speed with a weapon style, or raise resistance to a certain spell type. FAMILIAR: you can summon a creature to help you in battle, like a Silver Knight, a faerie Carabosse, a Bloodbringer sword, a Dantalion book or Dullahammer head thats similar to a medusa head. This game is great, the gameplay, the soundtrack, the voice acting and i'd even say the originality. Thanks for reading, and i hope you have as much fun with this game as I am having.

It's a metroidvania style game an there is so much to do. An it looks beautiful. Crafting an upgrading your shards is great fun. You wont regret this purchase.

Finally, symphony of the night for a new generation. The art style is crisp and modern and yet it's so castlevania it hurts. Please get this gem and support 2d games!

As expected, IGA has made a great entry into a genre he certainly popularized with his Castlevania work. My only disappointment is not for the game, but for Best Buy not including the metal case with preorder on anything but the Switch version, despite pretty much every news source saying it would come with any BB preorder. They had ample time to correct the news sites and chose not to, and I simply don't understand why, when the case clearly has a disc holder, it was only packaged with the one system that doesn't use discs. Great game though, still worth the price to any Castlevania fan.

The PS4 version of Bloodstained has very minor hiccups every so often, but it isn't too detrimental. But far better than the Switch version!

Great, fun game for Castlevania fans and fans of the Metroidvania genre. Very similar to Castlevania Symphony of the night in music and tone.

What a great game and I'm so glad their is a cheat code to unlock hard and nightmare mode. Nightmare mode was so hard at the beginning but once you get past the first 2 bosses the crafting really opens up and you can get over powered pretty fast. I almost doubted my decision to play in nightmare mode in my first play through. There are tons of magics to choose from and a ton of over powered abilities. The only negative I have with this game is that the shards are too good to the point where your normals seem pointless.

Bloodstained is an excellent follow up to the castlevania symphony of the night series. Old komami director does not disappoint with a beautiful and well designed game. Gameplay is very similar to sotn but also adds a shard level up system for tons of diffetent builds that every player can make his own. It is 2.5d and cel shaded. Not pixel art like sotn. It is also not as boss heavy as sotn but a ton of fun eith lots of secrets. I vould not wait to get home each day to continue grinding for 100 percent completion. Must buy